Nancy Sullivan will join former Coronation Street actors Vicky Entwistle and Chris Gascoyne in Jim Cartwright’s The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice at Birmingham REP.
Nancy Sullivan plays LV, a shy girl with a bold and beautiful voice whose blowsy mother Mari (Vicky Entwistle) shrieks and shouts her way around the house. Ray Say (Chris Gascoyne) sees LV as an opportunity to engineer his escape from small town showbiz to the bright lights of the big time.
James Brining, artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse, directs The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. He said, “there’s a wonderful poetry to this play and the relationships between Jim Cartwright’s extraordinary characters are funny and moving. I can’t wait to explore this in the rehearsal room with a great company of actors.
“Nancy has an incredible voice that can transport you while Vicky and Chris have an intuitive understanding of Mari and Ray. I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Nancy Sullivan appeared at the REP in The Wizard Of Oz. She was also in Nikolai Foster’s 2013 production of Michael Hofmann’s translation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person Of Sichuan at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre. Other credits include the role of Eponine in Trevor Nunn’s Les Miserables in the West End from 2008 to 2010.
As well as playing Coronation Street’s infamous Janice Battersby, Vicky Entwistle has appeared on stage in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, Bill Kenwright’s Funny Peculiar and took the role of Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables.
Chris Gascoyne who was Peter Barlow in Coronation Street played Johnny in Mark Babych’s production of Terrence McNally’s Frankie And Johnny In The Claire De Lune at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton in 2004. Other credits include The Rib Cage at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Simon Stephens's first play Bluebird at the Royal Court and The Changing Room at the Royal Court and in the West End.
Joanna Brookes, Brendan Charleson and Tendayi Jembare complete the cast of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice which is a co-production between Birmingham REP and West Yorkshire Playhouse. It runs in Birmingham from Friday 15 May until Saturday 30 May before transferring to Leeds.